Waiting
by moonlight-shimmer
Summary: Mimi Tachikawa is not used to people not being enchanted by her. So naturally, when Tai, her new neighbour, doesn't seem to like her immediately, she can't help but try to convince him otherwise. Michi. Neighbour AU! Rated T for swearing.


Dearest Michi shippers! :) Here's another oneshot for you about our favourite couple. It's not perfect, but I wanted to write something, and because I just can't stick to any longer piece at the moment, this will have to make do for now. Thank you so much for all the positive feedback I got for Push & Pull - you have no idea how much it means to me. Please let me know what you think about this, too. Happy Saturday! xxx 

**Waiting**

He had dimples.

The first time Mimi noticed them was when Tai smiled at her fleetingly in the elevator in their apartment building. She didn't know much about him – she'd only moved into the building two weeks prior – and she hadn't seen much of her next door neighbour (she assumed by the briefcase in his hand and the well-fitted suit on his body that he a demanding job). In addition, their official meeting hadn't exactly been ideal – she had locked herself out of her apartment and had to ask him for help – and, well, he hadn't necessarily been a joy to be around that night.

So when she saw him smile at her, it took her a second to respond.

(Also, Mimi had always had a thing for guys with dimples, which might have been another reason for her delayed reaction.)

She had starred at the newly revealed feature for a good five seconds before returning his beam, and by then, his lips had fallen back into a more neutral setting, his gaze redirected at the phone in his hand. However, Mimi found herself determined to see his lips twitch again. To provoke his dimples to pop, to etch them onto his face permanently.

(She should have known then and there that she might be anything but indifferent about the guy next door.)

* * *

As it turned out, Tai was a tough nut to crack.

The thing about Mimi Tachikawa was that, once she had settled her mind on something, she was determined to do everything to make it happen. This was why she had returned to her home country after more than a decade, even though she'd almost forgotten what it was like to bow in greeting instead of shaking hands, or how normal it was to feel earthquakes shaking the ground beneath her feet when she walked to the underground station after work.

The first few months after she'd moved in next to the tall, brown-haired man, she learned that he loved football (mostly because she could hear it at full volume through the walls), that he liked to sleep in on weekends (something she knew because he told her to keep her music down one rainy Saturday morning) and that he had a lovely, kind-hearted younger sister who visited him every few weeks.

It didn't take long for the two women to hit it off once Kari heard she was new in town, which is also how Mimi slowly, but happily weaved her way into Tai's life.

Remembering the way he'd smiled at her all these weeks ago, Mimi found herself trying to be his friend. She'd always been this way – she believed that there was something inherently good in every person, and she always tried to bring it out. So, she didn't complain (as often) about how loud he watched football and (sometimes) remembered to keep her music on a low volume when she did her weekly yoga session.

Unexpectedly, though, Mimi found herself more and more frustrated when all he did was throw her quick, off-hand smiles, especially because when he was talking to his mates, his dimples were on full display. They would pop at just about everything: a clever pun, a funny work story, Matt's exasperated eye roll, a favourite song on the radio.

Mimi, however, seldom was the cause for them to appear. It wasn't that she didn't have jokes or funny work stories (even if she wasn't as great a storyteller as TK, who could spin the awkward story of standing in the shower post-workout and realising that he forgot to bring a towel to the gym into an epic retelling of five acts) or that she couldn't rile Matt up, but there was just something about the way Tai interacted with her that felt… different.

In her irritation, Mimi turned to her best friend Joey, who was utterly confused at her question of whether it was physically possible to only make your dimples appear when talking to certain people.

"What are you on?" he asked, pulling her wine glass from her hands against her protests.

"I'm just saying," she huffed, "whenever this – person," she settled on, refusing to give him any more information than absolutely necessary, "smiles at me, it's not the same as when they talk to their friends. Like, it's completely crazy. It has to be possible to hide them."

Joey sighed. "Mimi, dimples are indentations in the flesh of the human body, caused by variations in the structure of the facial muscle. You can't control when they appear or not, just like you can't choose to not have a crinkle between your eyebrows when I say something you don't like."

Said crinkle deepened at his comment, and she crossed her arms over her chest.

"If it bothers you so much, why don't you just ask Tai what his problem is?"

"I – who said this is about him?!"

"Oh, _please_. You really think I haven't noticed his dimples when we had dinner with him and his friends the other night? Even _I_ was charmed by him when I saw them."

"He showed them to _you_?!"

* * *

Despite the fact that he still seemed to hold back around her, Mimi and Tai grew closer that spring. She enjoyed his company a lot, although he wasn't charmed by every single thing that she did. Mimi was used to being treated like a princess, and while he treated her with nothing but respect, he also wasn't afraid to call her out if she was being obnoxious or whiny (like that one time he told her to stop complaining about how she wasn't able to catch up with _Brooklyn 99_ because the episodes were only free to stream in the US). They actually had a lot in common: he knew a thing or two about cooking (which she appreciated a lot, since she could never invoke a lot of enthusiasm in Joey, who pretty much lived off frozen foods ever since he had started studying medicine) and American baseball (he had actually studied in New York for a year and gone to quite a few Yankees games, and she wondered excitedly if they'd ever unknowingly sat next to each other. "Considering that the stadium holds about 50,000 people, I'd say… _no_ ," he shattered her daydream, making her pout), and additionally, both of them adored his sister.

Mimi loved Kari ever since she'd knocked on her door shortly after she'd moved back to Japan and invited her to have dinner. The younger Yagami sibling was a joy to be around; she was kind, full of ideas and zealous, and, just like her brother, her cheeks dimpled adorably whenever her lips twitched into so much as a little smirk or a full-fledged belly laugh.

It cost Mimi no effort at all to evoke the cute little imperfections on the young woman's face, and although it made her happy, it also egged her on. Why was it that Kari was so open and welcoming, and Tai so guarded and distant?

She was clueless, and when Mimi was clueless, she started overthinking. Did he even like her, at all, or was he just tolerating her because Kari liked her so much?

That was when it happened.

One Saturday afternoon in April, Tai invited her to his place to watch the first game of the second stage of the Climax Series. Mimi happily agreed since it was the first Saturday she had off in a while – the restaurant was becoming quite busy with tourists coming to the main island before the stifling heat of the summer months – and was clad in blue and white in support of the Yokohama DeNA Baystars, the cap on her brunette curls showing their logo off proudly.

"Right, let's do this!" she said as soon as she was seated crossed-legged on Tai's couch, the popcorn bowl placed in her lap comfortably. She didn't see Tai looking at her before he sat own next to her, turning up the volume.

It was a tough game, and Mimi was on edge. So on edge, actually, that she didn't think about anything other than the match.

"For fuck's sake!" she exclaimed after a nail-biting second inning. "The pitchers are not feeling it today."

When Tai didn't respond, she looked over at him, surprised to find him looking at her instead of his flat screen.

"I had no idea you took baseball this seriously."

"You learn something new every day."

"You swore."

"I swear all the time."

"Not in front of me, you haven't."

"Well," she said, somewhat irritated. "Now I have. And I probably will again if they keep playing like a bunch of fucking first graders."

He chuckled, then, and she whipped her head to look at him fully.

There it was – the dimple on his right cheek, etched deeply into his skin as he laughed light-heartedly, grabbing the empty bowl she'd placed back on the table halfway through the second inning.

"I'll get you more popcorn," he said, the corners of his lips still pulled into the faintest grin.

Mimi tried everything to ignore the butterflies going berserk in her stomach.

* * *

The next time it happened, she thought she'd be prepared for it.

It was at one of Matt's concerts in a small venue not far from their building, and Mimi was thrilled when Sora asked her to come.

"Tai will be there, too," the redhead hat told her over the phone, which resulted in the two neighbours meeting up after work to head to the site together.

Mimi wasn't sure what the best thing about that night was: that they managed to elbow their way into the front row; that Yanshu, the keyboarder, waved at her; that she finally got to listen to that song Matt wouldn't admit was about Sora; that Tai kept coming back with more beer whenever her drink was empty; or that he brought out his best dad dance moves which made Matt cringe behind his mic, resulting in his three biggest fans to burst into tears of laughter.

There were no quick, insincere smiles tonight, only toothy grins and the cutest indentations popping on tanned skin.

Mimi couldn't get enough of them.

It had to be the sheer euphoria of seeing one of her friends perform live, paired with Tai's unusual, but pleasant proximity making her this drunk. That's what Mimi reckoned anyway when they took the subway home. Since the cocktail of endorphins in her blood, mixed with the smell of beer and cigarettes clinging to her clothes, made her buzz happily, she didn't want to sit down (also, it was only a ten minute ride home). But when the train stopped more abruptly than she had anticipated and she almost lost her footing, Tai pulled on her wrist gently to make her sit next to him.

It had to be the vim and vigour she felt from a good night out that made her feel like she was floating through the chilly spring night to their building, not the fact that she'd drank more beer than she could remember having in a long time.

"You really don't have to drop me off," she told Tai as the lift stopped and the doors to their floor slid open. "I'm perfectly capable getting home _on my own_."

"Your apartment is literally next to mine," Tai said. "It's not like I really have a choice."

"Oh, shush!" Mimi chastised him, digging her fist into his upper arm in what she considered a punishing hit (which, to him, however, felt like a pat on the shoulder). "Can't you just pretend to be a gentleman? Just this once?!"

He couldn't keep the mischief from his face when he pretended to think about it. "Nah," he said, shoving her to her own door playfully. "Goodnight. Don't puke."

Mimi pouted deeply, turning around with a crinkle between her brows. "You're such a dick sometimes, you know that? An insufferable, inconsiderate dick."

He was grinning as he turned to his front door. "I'll let it slide since you're drunk."

"Fuck off," she huffed, rummaging through her handbag for her keys.

Tai watched her struggle in amusement as she searched her bag, growing more and more impatient as it refused to produce her key ring. Eventually, he seemed to take pity on her, stepping forward and prying her clumsy hands from her purse. He pulled on a zipper to open an inside pocket he'd seen her put her keys in before they'd left for the concert. He dangled them in front of her face teasingly, prepared for her to snap at him to just give them to her.

However, Mimi was looking at him in awe; the crinkle between her eyebrows had smoothed away; the pout had disappeared, leaving her lips slightly parted as she studied his features intently; her eyes were round and big and curious.

Despite the alcohol that was also clouding his senses, he recognised the shifting energy of the moment. Tai's smile faded somewhat uncertainly, the keys forgotten and clinking in his hand as he studied her closely.

"No," she said, her slender fingers touching his cheek gently, steadily, any sign of intoxication gone. "Bring it back," she said, poking one fingertip almost carefully where his dimple had been moments ago.

"Bring what back?" he said, his voice catching in his throat.

"You've got dimples," Mimi stated, her other hand reaching for his that was still clasping her set of keys.

"Yeah," Tai said, feeling silly. "I do."

"They're cute," Mimi almost sighed. She was so close now that he could feel the cold leather of her jacket against the fabric of his shirt.

"Yeah?" Tai muttered, lacing his fingers through hers.

"Hmm," she said. The gap between them was so small now, he could smell the beer on her breath. He wondered if her lips tasted like it, too.

Mimi, on the other hand, felt the mixture of alcohol, adrenaline and agitation which had gone to her head all evening settle deep in her stomach. Warmth radiated through her from the centre of her body all the way to the fingertips that still rested against Tai's cheek, and she recognised the tell-tale swoop that usually meant you were riding a roller coaster. She'd known the moment that he stepped into her personal space to help her find her keys. She'd known that there was a reason she enjoyed seeing him smile, and it wasn't because she liked charming people and being able to twist them around her little finger within minutes.

This wasn't about her at all. It was because she enjoyed doing it to _him_.

But the longer she looked into Tai's dark eyes, the more conscious she became of the fact that she was standing on her own two feet, nowhere near the possibility of a free fall. Something was off.

He didn't budge.

 _Why_ wasn't he doing anything? She was practically pressed against him; all he had to do was lean in, or pull her a little closer. She'd always rolled her eyes when people said "don't let the moment pass you by", but ironically, in her drunken state, she had never felt an instant so clearly slip through her fingers like sand, and before she could do anything against it, it was gone. Mimi dropped her hand from its place on his skin quickly, embarrassed at her actions.

She didn't know that Tai felt like she'd slapped him, that his cheek felt cold at the loss of her touch. Her fingers closed over her keys, and he let her tug them from his hold.

"Goodnight," Mimi said. She was relieved when the lock of her door clicked open and she got to escape his probing gaze.

She had been wrong. She was not prepared for this.

* * *

The following few days, Mimi experienced a state that she hadn't felt in a while: she was weirded out by herself. Instead of brushing the night of the concert off, or knocking on Tai's door and straight up ask him if he also thought there had been a moment between them, she _obsessed_ over it and what it meant. Worst of all, she always came to the same conclusion: that Tai had no feelings for her whatsoever, and that she must have imagined the sparks flying between them.

She usually wasn't shy when she liked someone; she would have made a move and kissed him had she not stood there for what felt like a solid minute just staring into his _unwavering_ , dimple-free face like a complete idiot.

All of this led Mimi to avoid Tai like the plague for the next couple of weeks, which wasn't as easy considering that they were next door neighbours. She hadn't used her balcony for days in fear of finding him on his, even though spring was slowly turning into summer and the weather was constantly coaxing her to soak up some sun. She made specific plans for the end of her work days, calling up Joey and asking him to go to one bar or another, or met Kari at restaurants rather than at Tai's apartment, as had become their routine.

She managed to keep this up for about three weeks, but when she declined having lunch with both siblings three times in a row, she could feel Kari getting suspicious. It wasn't that she didn't want to hang out with them anymore – she was miserable without them, and she knew she was acting like a proper idiot, but whenever she thought about her and Tai's last encounter… her cheeks burned and her head spun. It was like the moment that had passed between them came back frequently to laugh at her at the top of its voice, and she wished she could turn back time and not make a move at him that he obviously wasn't interested in.

Three full weeks had passed, and it was then that Kari called up Mimi, telling her that Tai was hosting a get together at his to watch the final game of the Climax Series. "And I won't accept no for an answer, okay? I miss you!" And how was Mimi supposed to argue with this?

So the following Friday night, Mimi knocked on the door next to hers, feeling as silly and nervous as the first time she had done this when she had locked herself out of her apartment and had to ask for help.

It would be okay, she reasoned with herself. It wasn't like he'd made any indication that he didn't want to see her ever again – out of the three times she had declined the lunch offer, he'd texted her two times, and he'd also knocked on her door one morning offering her a cup of coffee since he knew her coffee machine was useless (she'd declined and hurried to work, arriving an hour before her shift started).

Mimi rolled her eyes at herself. She was actually being ridiculous. She should just move on and forget anything ever happened – he probably had.

The door was opened, and she straightened herself quickly. To her relief (and also disappointment), it wasn't Tai who'd opened her, but Izzy, and she happily accepted the kiss he placed on her cheek in greeting. She really had been avoiding them all, and she felt sorry about this, especially when Kari and Sora pulled her into a group hug.

"What's this then?" the younger Yagami sibling asked, pointing to the Tupperware box Mimi was holding.

"Oh, I brought some marinated chicken wings," she said. "I figured it would be better to bite them than our nails during the game, huh?"

Sora smirked. "Which team are you supporting? According to Izzy, if we don't support the Giants, we're risking his friendship."

Mimi, who had followed the baseball season as regularly as she could, knew that both teams had had a good season, and thought they both deserved a win. She felt herself relax as she was talking to Sora; this was going to be fine. It would for sure be a lovely evening.

It was when Sora heard her name being called from the living room that she excused herself. "Tai's in the kitchen," she informed her. "Go say hi, he'll be happy to see you."

The remark would have been weighty had she not said it so fleetingly.

There really was no reason for Mimi to stay in the hallway, so she rolled her shoulders nervously in a hopeless attempt to loosen herself up again before turning to the open kitchen door.

"Hello," she said in her most confident voice as she peaked around the corner. Tai stood in front of the stove, wooden spoon in hand as he turned around, a look of surprise on his face. "You came," he said, sounding pleased.

"Yeah," she said, shrugging shyly. "I think Kari would've ended our friendship if I hadn't."

He smirked a little, but she sensed that he was cautious, too. "Yeah, you've been a bit of a stranger lately," he settled on.

Mimi blushed and looked down at the box containing the wings. "I tend to feel a bit embarrassed when I tell someone that they're cute," she said. "Especially when they don't really respond to it."

Tai frowned at this, lines appearing on his forehead as he turned around to the stove to tend to his cooking again.

"What's this then?" Mimi asked, the smell drawing her closer in interest.

"Chili," he answered, stirring the contents of the pot. He glanced at her. "Wanna taste?"

She nodded happily, forgetting her nerves and switching into professional mode. She put the Tupperware box onto the small table next to the door which he'd arranged as a little buffet. Tai handed her a table spoon and she dipped it into the red soup and brought it to her mouth. It tasted as delicious as it smelled.

"Very nice. Just a pinch of salt and it's perfect," she smiled. When she realised how close he suddenly was, her lips pursed into a thin line. "What are you doing?"

A shadow passed over his brown eyes, and he bit his lip anxiously as he moved even closer, her back resting against the countertop now.

"You're cute, too," he said with a clumsy tongue, a blush creeping onto his smooth cheeks. "Sorry, this is such a stupid move. But I've been meaning to tell you this for a month."

Mimi exhaled. "You have?"

"Yeah. Didn't give me a chance to tell you, did you? You've been avoiding me."

She frowned at that. "I thought you didn't think of me this way. It certainly didn't seem like it that night."

"I would've kissed you if you hadn't been drunk."

The crinkle between her eyebrows deepened in offence. "I wasn't _that_ drunk."

Tai looked at her unblinkingly. "You were convinced I was dropping you off, even though I live next door."

"Okay, first of all, that was a joke." She was lying through her teeth, but she didn't let him interrupt her. "Second of all, I was giving you _all_ the signs."

"No you weren't," he exclaimed. "You were too drunk to give any signs."

"I was basically pressed up against you!"

"Well, how was I supposed to know that was genuine?! I thought you were trying not to fall over, because, yes, you were pretty wasted."

It was incredible, Mimi thought, how fucking stubborn he was. He just wasn't gonna back down, was he? It was like a crossroads opened up in front of her, because if there was one thing Mimi loved, it was having the last word. She could continue arguing that it was his fault she had become estranged from him for the past few weeks, and she was _so_ tempted to do just that, to bite back, to show him who was in the right.

There was, however, a second path she could take.

Mimi stretched herself to her full height, pushing herself off the counter and thereby closing the last few inches that remained between the pair. She took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of chili and spices and soap and cologne, and looked him straight in the eye.

"I'm not drunk now," she said.

"Good," he rasped, leaning forward.

Suddenly, she was on the roller coaster again, and she realised that it had been far too long that she'd relished in this sensation, the way that her stomach swooped out of excitement. There was, however, something else she felt, and it took her a moment to understand that it was fear. It genuinely was like a roller coaster – it was a mixture of feeling alive and being scared at your own recklessness upon stepping on this ride, and it manifested itself in the conflicting way in which she wanted to keep watching him to not miss a single blink of his lashes or twitch of his lips or the possibility of those damn dimples popping, and her eyelids fluttering shut at the same time; and, _oh_ , the way the fingers of his right hand pressed deliciously against her waist, simultaneously grounding her and lifting her off her feet.

This was the moment that had passed them by and then some; while she had felt like he'd dumped ice-cold water over her when she'd leaned into him and thought he didn't want her, the delicious tension now prickled between them in a slow, agonising burn, and she wanted nothing more than to press her lips against his already.

Just when she felt his breath pass over her skin, there was a soft gasp coming from the direction of the hallway. Tai was quicker than Mimi; he turned around to look at Sora, who stood in the door, one hand raised over her parted lips in pleasant surprise.

"Sorry," she said, quite unfazed. "The game's about to start." She grabbed a piece of bread from the small buffet table and left discreetly.

It was a testament to how close Tai and Sora were that he hadn't even bothered to move out of Mimi's personal space when they were interrupted. For the first time since she had entered the apartment tonight, the laughter, cheers and excited conversations from the other side of the hallway reached her ears, reminding her that there was a flat full of friends waiting for the two of them, and though she had craved their company just minutes ago, she selfishly wished that they'd all go home right now.

"We should probably join them," she said.

"Yeah, in a minute," Tai said, leaning in again, but she turned her head coyly so that his lips landed on her jaw instead. He took his chance and kissed her there, and she gasped softly.

"I don't want anyone to barge in again," she admitted. He groaned regretfully, but pulled back from her, his eyes searching hers.

"Stay behind later?" he asked, biting his bottom lip again. "We can continue this then."

She smiled teasingly. "Don't wanna wait another month?"

He chuckled, and her eyes glazed over as his dimples popped fully, happily, as he grinned at her. "Nah, I'd rather not, thank you."

She took a deep breath, questioning her own sanity for a moment – he was still so close and his lips looked so full and inviting and _she'd never seen his dimples pin his smirk in place for so long_ – before shaking her head a little to clear her mind. "Right. Your chili needs more salt. I'll go in first."

Tai took a step back to allow her to move around him, but to her own surprise, she didn't move. Instead, she put her hand on his jaw impulsively, turning his face a bit to place a lingering kiss on his cheek, right where she felt the indentation deepen even more at the unexpected action.

When he chased her for a proper kiss, she put her finger to his lips cheekily. "Later."

"Tease," he muttered disbelievingly, turning back to the stove to perfect the food.

* * *

It was safe to say that he had never given less of a fuck about a baseball game.

It was a good match as well: the Yomiuri Giants were up against the Chiba Lotte Marines, and both teams were bringing their absolute A game. Tai honestly couldn't tell which one was going to be victorious; they were fighting tooth and nail and, although he really wasn't paying much attention, the commentators talked about the "game of the decade" so often that he couldn't deny the importance of this finale. Izzy was alternately biting his nails and exclaiming "I can't watch"; Yolei and TK had gone to the kitchen to have a second serving of chili in peace after Davis had snapped at them to stop talking; Matt was watching Tai, who he noticed was uncharacteristically silent throughout most of the match, elbowing Sora and silently asking her what was wrong with him.

She smirked, cleared her throat and nodded over to Mimi, who sat as far away from Tai as physically possible, perched on his office chair next to the balcony door, pensively starring at the flat screen and nibbling on one of her chicken wings.

The blonde man understood immediately, shaking his head as if he was disapproving, but there was a glint in his eyes that betrayed his cool demeanour. He kept watching the two neighbours as they were deliberately avoiding each other's gaze as naturally as they could – a task more difficult than one might think, even in a room full of people. When finally, after ten innings, the Giants emerged victorious, Matt caught them locking eyes across the room immediately.

Being the only ones that were aware of the blossoming situation, Sora and Matt were the first to bid their goodbyes. Kari, who'd caught her friends' non-verbal cues, told them she'd come with them. Tai tried hard not to roll his eyes when Sora threw him a generous "You're welcome" as she pulled on her shoes, but thanked her anyway. TK and Yolei followed not long after, asking if they should help clean up, but Tai waved them off, thanking them for their company and then ushering them out of the door (and almost snapping when TK came back from the elevator, asking if he could take home the left-over chicken wings).

Davis and Izzy, however, weren't thinking about leaving anytime soon. They opened four bottles of beer, cheering to the Giants, to their lame friends for leaving this early and to Tai for being the best host ever. (He was trying not to knock himself out when they raised that last toast.)

Although Mimi and Tai were both impatient people, both of them were raised to be polite, which is why they sat with their friends for a little while longer (they didn't hate them, after all). However, they were also taught to never be afraid to open their mouths when they wanted something, which is why Tai decided to dust off his acting skills by giving the biggest, loudest (and, as Mimi would later tell him, most unconvincing) yawn in the history of sleepiness. "Jeez, that was something, huh? I'd better get this mess cleaned up and then straight to bed."

The two men got the hint, after all, but insisted on helping to put the dishes in the washer and tidy the living room (a gesture Mimi found so nice she felt bad for throwing them out like this).

"Thanks for this, we should do this again soon!" Izzy said as he stood in the hallway, pulling his jacket on.

"I'll text you next weekend," Tai promised, and they shook hands and hugged. Davis turned to Mimi. "You staying?"

"I'll walk out with you," she joked quickly, deciding to nip into her own place to keep up appearances. "See you later, Tai," she said, her eyes shining with mischief.

After saying goodbye to Izzy and Davis, she slipped into her own flat, heading straight for the bathroom.

"Right," she said to her reflection, grabbed her hair brush and started to comb her hair. She also applied some honey-scented lip balm and a spritz of her favourite perfume for good measure. She rolled her eyes at herself when her lips pulled into a smile on their own accord.

When she walked back out, she realised Tai had left the door ajar for her.

Much like the Giants must have earlier, she felt victory bubble up in her chest.

He was outside on the balcony, his broad frame silhouetted against the city lights. She knocked on the open door so as not to startle him, but he merely turned his head a little before looking at the skyline again.

"Thought you'd bailed on me," he said as she stood next to him to lean onto the railing.

"I was just trying to be casual," she said. "Unlike you, you almost shoved TK and Yolei out earlier."

"As if you weren't in the hallway behind me, making sure they actually left," he shot back, turning towards her eventually.

Mimi faced him as well, her left arm resting in a (seemingly) nonchalant way on the banister. She tried hard not to fiddle with her hands, so she rested her free one on her hip. "So," she prompted, licking her lips. "I'm cute?"

He laughed lightly, pushing his messy hair back from his forehead as his dimples returned to his cheeks happily. "Yeah," he said, moving just a little closer.

"How?" she teased, grinning when he huffed in impatience.

"Just are," he said quietly, putting his hands on her waist and pulling her closer.

"Hmmm, I'm sure you can do better than this," Mimi said, resting her hands on his forearms to keep him at a distance. "Do you think I'd let anyone kiss me unless they gave me a good reason?"

"Who says I'm gonna kiss you?" he asked impishly.

"You wanted to earlier," she said.

"I think I changed my mind."

"Oh, really? Guess I'll go, then," Mimi said, letting go of him to retreat, but he was having none of it, his hold tightening on her hips.

"You're such a nuisance," Tai muttered through her laughter. "Just fucking kiss me already, please."

"What makes you think _I'm_ going to kiss you?" she said with raised eyebrows.

"The fact that you put perfume on," he said without missing a beat. "Or that you brushed your hair. Or, most telling of all," he paused for dramatic effect, "that you came back here."

He was so close now that she could see the faintest shadow of stubble on his upper lip. He'd managed to trap her between his body and the balcony railing, and the roller coaster feeling was back, making her want to faint with excitement and giving her the sense that she'd never been more conscious at the same time.

"Kiss me," he whispered.

"Give me a reason to," she countered, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"It would make my dimples pop," he laughed. Mimi rolled her eyes so hard that he actually thought he might lose his chance, so he dropped his mouth to her hairline, pressing several kisses there to appease her.

"I really want you to," he said, then, in one breath, words running together in his haste. "You have no idea how much I want you to."

Mimi licked her lips before finally, shyly pressing them into his in a slow, sensual, short kiss. She gasped when he pulled her back, locking their mouths in a far more passionate manner. He titled his head to deepen it and he revelled in the small moan that escaped her when he licked over her bottom lip.

After what felt like ages, Mimi pulled back first. "Can't breathe," she said, but Tai just kissed along her neck instead.

"I've been waiting for this for ages," he admitted as he locked eyes with her again.

"When I moved in I thought you didn't like me," she said, ducking her head a little.

He blushed as he took a strand of her hair between his fingers to put it back behind her ear before daring to look at her again.

"That wasn't it," he said.

She raised an eyebrow in question, waiting for him to elaborate.

"I couldn't read you," he said, his lips ghosting against her cheek as he spoke. "I'm good at reading people, usually. My first impression of someone is almost always correct. With you, though… I couldn't decipher you. I feel the first time you were truly yourself around me was when you watched the Baystars go down and called them a bunch of fu –"

"Yeah, I remember, they were colourful insults," Mimi said, frowning. "However, _I_ was the one trying to figure _you_ out. You were always so guarded around me –"

"Because you were!"

"No, I was just confused because _you_ never –"

The second time he kissed her, it was deeper still and more intimate as he cupped her cheek, titling her head slightly to slant his lips over hers more easily.

It was like roots pushing down and getting caught in a hurricane all at once.

"You never showed them," she whispered when he pulled away at last.

"Showed what?"

She lifted her hand and touched her index finger to his right cheek, just like she had that night after the concert.

"Your dimples," she mumbled, feeling her face heat up.

They popped, then, provoked by her shy statement, in a smug smile.

"Didn't know that was all it'd take," he said.

"Ugh, you're such an arrogant –"

Tai kissed her again, pressing her into the railing a little firmer. Laughter bubbled past Mimi's lips when she felt the smile he couldn't shake, and she pressed her thumbs into the indentations just past the corners of his mouth.

She had been waiting a long time to do this, too.


End file.
